Precious Metals Prices To Rise As The U.S. Economy Disintegrates

As the U.S. economy continues to disintegrate, increasing numbers of investors will be forced to move out of paper assets and into physical gold and silver to protect their wealth. At first the move will be slow, but as Americans wake up from four decades of fiat monetary amnesia, it will turn into a torrent.

Unfortunately, there won’t be much in the way of physical precious metals to “GET” at this time, as the clever Chinese and Easterners already cleared most of the shelves. However, Americans will still be shocked and stunned that they didn’t see this big transfer of wealth coming….. and there is a good reason for that. Brain damage.

Well… let’s just say, a collective brain damage. Now, I don’t mean everyone and we really can’t blame the majority of the public as they are extremely gullible. Gullible to the extent that when news or a breaking story is on the BOOB TUBE, well then it must be true.

Which means, if the MSM actually did its job of finding and reporting the truth, rather than reading the Elite and Corporate controlled feed on the teleprompter, then we would probably be much better off today.

But of course, this isn’t the case. As economic indicators go from bad to worse, Americans for some strange reason believe (or hope) things are finally turning around for the better. However, if we look at the real data, things are heading right back over the cliff.

Sales is the largest in 5 years and aside from the financial crisis is the worst since 1993! This is also the biggest miss on record. Inventories rose more than expected (+0.6% vs +0.4% expectations) which could be a problem as the inventories/sales ratio surges to its highest in 11 months. Unsurprisingly, Autos saw the largest inventory build (+6.8% YoY).

Furthermore, the most comatose areas of the retail sector are hemorrhaging first, making way for the full body blow to come later. Here are a few of the retail casualties from Michael Snyder’s article, “20 Facts About The Great Retail Apocalypse”:

#1 As you read this article, approximately a billion square feet of retail space is sitting vacant in the United States.

#7 Sears has closed about 300 stores since 2010, and CNN is reporting that Sears is “expected to shutter another 500 Sears and Kmart locations soon”.

Some members on Snyder’s site commented that he was just focusing on the worst stores and that they were not a good indicator of the retail sector. While that may be true, I see things getting bad enough that we will eventually see McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, Olive Garden, Starbucks, Best Buys, Targets, Wal-Mart and etc. closing stores.

It’s coming, unfortunately the majority of investors and public don’t realize it yet.

You see, the collapse of the U.S. and global economy has more to do with energy than all the theft, manipulation and fraud taking place in the financial system…. even though there’s a hell of a lot of it.

Why is this so? Try to shove a stack of $10 bills in your gas tank and see how far you get. Or how about a farmer trying to run his tractor on an interest rate swap. Lastly, a manufacturing plant needs electricity to run its operations, not a futures contract.

U.S. Natural Gas Storage Levels Down 50% Compared To Last Year

Last month I posted the graph below from the EIA – U.S. Energy Information Agency. At the time, the U.S. was down 34% in underground gas storage:

I forecasted that the drop would be between 800-1,000 Bcf. The EIA stated that it would fall to 965 Bcf by the end March.. Today, the EIA released their natural gas storage report… and we had another whopper of a draw-down.

As we can see from the table below current gas storage levels are down 49% compared to last year.. and we still have 3-4 weeks remaining for continued withdrawals:

So, it is quite possible that we will hit a low of 800 Bcf by the end of March (lower than the 965 Bcf forecasted by the EIA) before the industry starts rebuilding the storage levels in April.

The EIA is optimistic that record natural gas production in 2014 will build the storage levels up 2,500 Bcf by the end of October — the end of the injection season.

What happens if storage levels fall to 800-850 Bcf, and we are only able to add 2,000-2,200 Bcf of gas by the end of October? That would be 20% less compared to the 3,925 Bcf level reached in October 2013.

This is quite possible if we look at the following graph. This is one of the graphs included in my upcoming THE U.S. & GLOBAL COLLAPSE REPORT.

You will notice that U.S. natural gas production grew at least 2.5% each year (much higher most of the time) with record increases of 7.5% in 2011 and 4.8% in 2012. However, in 2013 total U.S. natural gas production increased a paltry 0.8% compared to 2012. This was the lowest annual increase going back to 2005.

How could this happen? Isn’t the U.S. planning on building LNG terminals to ship all our surplus gas overseas? How on earth do we plan on exporting natural gas if we are still a NET IMPORTER? That’s correct.. we still import natural gas from Canada to fill our shortfall.

The U.S. will never become energy independent or a net exporter of natural gas. Furthermore, I believe we will see PEAK NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION in the U.S. much sooner than later.

I will explain this in detail in THE U.S. & GLOBAL COLLAPSE REPORT.

Physical Precious Metals Availability To Dry Up As The U.S. Economy Disintegrates

It’s no secret to the precious metal community that the Chinese and East are rapidly devouring all the physical gold they can get their hands on. According to Koos Jansen’s InGoldWeTrust, the Chinese imported a record 418 metric tons of gold in the first two months of the year.

The Chinese as well as many other countries in the East realize that the U.S. Dollar’s days are numbered, so its wise to acquire as much gold as possible. In doing so, it puts severe pressure on the paper gold market. Because, the more physical gold that heads East, the higher degree of leverage comes into the paper market.

At some point the PAPER GOLD MARKET will crack and the public will get a rude awakening. This will probably be the time U.S. citizens experience seriously high rates of inflation.

Americans trying to buy gold or silver at this time will find out there is very little to acquire only at much higher prices. Currently, the U.S. Mint Authorized Dealers continue to purchase every allocated Silver Eagle.

In just the first two days of this week, the U.S. Mint sold 1,124,500 Silver Eagles:

Last week, the U.S. mint sold 1.1 million Silver Eagles.. the total allotment for the week. This week, the U.S. Mint increased its allocated amount to 1.2 million and sold 94% (1,124,500), in the first two days.

Chances are the authorized dealers will purchase the remaining 75,700 Silver Eagles by weeks end. If the U.S. Mint continues to allocate at least 1 million Silver Eagles each week for March, it will be another record for the month at over 4 million sold.

Here are the Silver Eagle March sales figures for the past 3 years:

2011 = 2,767,000

2012 = 2,542,000

2013 = 3,356,500

Again, if the present sales trend continues, 2014 March sales will surpass 2013 by nearly 1 million ounces.

Furthermore, first quarter Silver Eagle sales are on track to reach 12.8-13 million. At this rate, 2014 could be another record year at 45-48 million Silver Eagles sold.

If the Silver Eagle allotment is selling out each week (since the beginning of the year), what happens if the American public wakes up and wants to purchase Silver? How would that huge demand impact price?

Currently, Americans are invested in the largest Paper Ponzi Scheme in history. They hope and pray that the DIGITS in their accounts will be good as gold when they retire. Unfortunately for them, the only thing that is good as gold….. IS GOLD (or silver).

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60 Commentson "Precious Metals Prices To Rise As The U.S. Economy Disintegrates"

Greetings- your article represents the truth, which is something the people of this country know nothing of! They are so manipulated and dumbed down from all the chemicals and TV they watch, and truly believe their government will never lie and will always be there to provide for them.

They are about to find out how terribly duped they have been. The hour is near for all

Steve, you mention that humanities way of life is tied to oil. As oil goes so does the population. It’s the same thesis of Michael Ruppert. If so where does gold come into play? If humanity suffers from EROI/Peak Oil doesn’t that make PM irrelevant at some point?

You should read more on the topic. Asking if PM’s will become irrelevant at some point is like asking if currency will become irrelevant at some point. Unless The US and Russia nuke us back to the stone age, I doubt we are going to return to a barter system anytime soon…..

The barter system HAS returned and IS in full force…in my community and all over the world. I read somewhere in my daily travels that the barter economy is over 2 trillion $…In the US or worldwide…think it was just in the US. Regardless, 2 trillion is AWESOME!

People who have some money left and are doing their best to keep their home and feed themselve are s-and-fkn tired of paying taxes to those who receive this money and get the same…for doing less than nothing.

PM’s are one of the most sought after tangibles on earth. Look at the amount of energy expended from the beginning to the end product. From the tech, to the equipment, to the final coin. One big continuous burn of fossil fuel. Every heated/energized building, every tire, every piece of steel in the massive equipment used…etc.

Soon, the mining process will come to an end…the fuel left will not be wasted on it.

PM’s will then return to their rightful place…the top shelf of the monetary system.

I’m not sure what kind of “system” will be in place, but civilizations have always had some form of money…gold has always been the standard.

That’s not possible. If gold/silver shoot to the top of monetary system then mining will only increase. It’s like saying there stores of money underground but noone to retrieve it…makes no sense unless your saying fuel will be more valuable than gold/silver???

joe. What I am saying is that fuel is being all used up at every second of the process. It cannot and will not continue for ever. Fuel will be not be wasted to make more fuel to mine anything. Whether you believe it or not, there is a line in the sand for EVERYTHING.

The search for metals will end and the metal in existence will have real value.

That is a loaded question. I will be discussing this in more length in the future. However, the reason gold and silver will be the GO TO ASSETS is due to the fact that just about everything else will be declining in value.

There are so very few people in the world invested in gold and silver… so a small move would increase their value tremendously. Even though PEAK OIL & the FALLING EROI will destroy the global economy… the world will still go on.

It’s a loaded question because from what i’ve read our entire global society is tied to cheap oil. As the cheap oil goes away and there isn’t a viable alternative our global society goes with it. If that’s not true then cheap or expensive oil doesn’t matter. From your position it DOES because our entire delivery system and for that matter the global delivery system is centralized so cheap oil is a necessity.

My question on gold was from the thought of does it really matter who owns what if you have a mass reduction in population? Some globalists think the earth should have 75-85% less people on this planet. A peak oil impact or lack of cheap oil will massively hurt the global population.

This is a podcast I was listening to that also talks about Peak Oil and the impact on human civilization.

“Some members on Synder’s site commented that he was just focusing on the worst stores and that they were not a good indicator of the retail sector. While that may be true, I see things getting bad enough that we will eventually see McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, Olive Garden, Starbucks, Best Buys, Targets, Wal-Mart and etc. closing stores”.

I live a few miles from a busy shopping mall. Near the mall is a Wal-Mart and a Costco. Visually Costco’s customer volume is MUCH greater than Wal-Mart. And since they sell in bulk the average checkout transaction is significantly larger. The bathrooms are kept extremely clean.

Yeah I could see a Wal-Mart closing. There are two within five miles of each other.

If and when a financial panic sets in people will also renew their rush toward firearms and ammunition, which has subsided somewhat from the last fervor. When that happens that won’t be available either.

If the someone chooses not to own a firearm in their home for self defense, like some of my friends, that’s their choice. I think it is a bad choice but to each his own.

Remember WW2 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor ? The only reason why they didn’t do a land invasion on CONUS (Continental United States) was because, as the JAPANESE said, “behind every blade of grass there is a gun”. And that my friend is one hell of a deterrent.

When the Watts riots occurred, business owners standing outside their businesses with loaded firearms prevented the looting of their stores. Having a loaded firearm solved the problem of keeping their goods secure in the mist of a riot. That benefited the community, as the riots subsided, the community had a place to go and get their needed goods.

Rodster: As long as there are human beings there will be trade in some form. Owning PM’s protects your wealth as paper collapses. The trick is to switch your metal to usable commodities in time. That is to say when a system still exists when title can still be had for the arable land you can get at a deal.
Start planning now….not just pm’s. but the availability of fresh water sources, donkeys, chickens, solar panel gen sets, or what ever is appropriate for your region or “escape area”. Start planning now!

YA! Donkeys are good eatin’. No one can supply all of his own needs, even if you stock up, you will eventually run out. Therefore trade is the main characteristic of a civilization. Money is the grease that greases the skids in that transaction. People with a surplus, or needing a good, will exchange something for it. PMs will solve that problem as history has demonstrated, repeatedly.

PMs are much more portable than 10 cartons of cornflakes. You may have to move more quickly in the future than you now realize.

When researching natural gas statistics, don’t forget that there are new regulations coming that will limit the massive amount of flaring of the natural gas industry. Flaring eliminates approximately 29% of fracked gas into the air, releasing six million tons (and growing) of carbon into the atmosphere each year. The industry believes it can capture 85% of natural gas in two years, up from 70% today, and to as much as 90% in six years. And that’s with rising production in the Bakken field, expected to grow 40% by the end of 2015.

The biggest problem facing the NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY in the U.S. is not the regulations, but the 24% annual decline rate. I didn’t make that figure up, it came from a CITI RESEARCH REPORT in 2013.

Shale gas wells have terribly high annual decline rates between 30-50% per year. Now that shale gas is a much larger percentage of natural gas production, it has increased the annual decline rate substantially.

Thus, with an 24% annual decline rate, the gas industry needs to replace nearly 100% of total gas production within 4 years. Do see this as anywhere possible??

Furthermore, according to Baker Hughes, drilling rig activity in the natural gas industry continues to decline. If the industry is not adding drilling rigs… how on earth does it plan to increase production as the industry suffers a 24% annual decline rate?

Even with those high decline rates, we could see natural gas levels over the short term be positively effected by severe cutbacks in flaring. Per yer chart, even though growth slowed in 2013 the overall production level was higher and it will probably be slowly upticking for the next five years. I’m not arguing that shale gas output is not going to decline sharply over time frames of a decade or more.
Precious metals investors who are waiting on declining energy sources to crash the paper markets need to dig heir heels in and be very patient.

It’s not that a sharp declining energy supply will crash the markets per say, but when we factor everything together… it pushes the system over the edge. That being said, I still believe we will see a sharp decline at some point (explained below).

A good percentage of the huge increase of debt and interest rate swaps over the past 7-9 years was due to the Central Banks attempt to offset the peaking of oil. We must remember, global oil production (Crude & Condensate) plateaued since 2005.

Furthermore, technology has brought up more oil from many old oil fields around the world. The Saudi’s like to brag that they were able to lower their annual decline rate from say 7-8% down to 2%. While this is nice and all, it speeds up the OVERALL DEPLETION of the field.

CLARIFICATION: Decline rate is the annual percentage of fall in production. Depletion is the percentage of recoverable oil remaining. So the faster the Saudi’s suck the oil, they can lower their annual decline rate, but the speed up the depletion of the field.

Basically, the Saudi’s stole from future production. Currently they are utilizing horizontal drilling to tap into the oil at the top of their major fields as decades of water injection pushed the oil to the top of the field.

“Forensic analysis regarding how the oil/water mix that is extracted seems to be changing to more water, less oil in Saudi Oil fields. The red portions of the bands are oil.”

So, the Saudis used water injection to sweep their fields, thus pushing the oil to the top of the field shown in the graphs above.
Not only did the Saudi’s steal oil production from the future, they also overstated their reserves.. as well as many other Middle East Countries.

I believe we will experience a SHARK-FIN type decline in global oil production, that very few expect.

I believe this was what happened in Iraq. Saddam Hussein had drilled down his own oil to the point he was tapping horizontally into Kuwait to hide the fact that this own production was declining and with it would go his international clout. He invaded to annex Kuwait to get the oil, resulting in the first Iraq war, Operation Desert Storm. When the US invaded it found that oil production potential was drastically lower than expected due to depletion; I believe up to the end of the US occupation it never went back to pre-war levels; that fact is being hidden until far into the future so that the fact of current Iraqi oil depletion will not be seen as the final proof of the folly of the entire enterprise. When it is finally publicly known it will be blamed on intervening drawdown over the years and not on a prior depletion that was evident before the US invasion.

In the german newspaper “welt” was an article some days ago about the dependence on Russian natural gas. The author suggestions for making us independent from evil Russia was to import LNG from USA. In the comment section of the article nobody complaint that it won’t be possible to do that.
As you can see the most Germans have this brain damage also.

Hi my German friend. I’m confused on where Germany might stand in this Ukranian issue. there are some (Jim Willie) who say that there are powerful alliances being formed between Germany and Russia as evidenced by new railway systems between the two countries. However, the rhetoric coming from Angele Merkel right now is extremely negative and threatening towards Russia. Where do you think things are headed in Germany?

The propaganda in the media is clearly pro USA/EU and against Russia. But reading the comments in the newspapers a lot people have the feeling that what we doing is not the right thing. My personal opinion is , the west was the main cause for all the mess in Ukraine. I think we absolutely dependent from Russian natural gas so I don’t understand how our leaders can’t see this. Mabe brotherjohnf (http://youtu.be/YY-r66Jwl80) is right that the hole thing is just a game show to divide Ukraine in to parts. But how knows maybe our leaders are really as desperate. I don’t know. Right now I am happy with the crimea people because the won whit 93 % for join to Russia. I really want to know how the west is going to argue against such clear results. The west is absolutely losing credibility because we argue always with democracy.

I must ad something, today morning some articles with comments about Ukraine topic. I have never seen such a big difference between the official propaganda and the opinion of the people in german newspapers. Despite people reject all the ideas to sanction Russia the MSM is pushing out ther propaganda without notice.
Let’s see how this will go on.

The closing of Staples stores is over the next two years, a consultant firm has been involved in our “Reinvention” the retail division is a just a causality of the economic conditions of certain markets and increased online sales, (We are the second largest online seller, just beneath Amazon)but these are not as concerning as the changes being made on the larger business division. 260 SD offices will be closing by end of this fiscal year.

Office Max and Office Depot sales comps are off due to their merger and customer reluctance to resign corporate contracts, so more is going on in this sector this is being impacted by the economy yes but also changing business factors as well

the new popularity of the walking dead type shows are a way to prepare us,kinda numb us down for when it really happens. Oh they wont really be dead,rather just as good as dead because they did not set themselves up to survive the systems collapse. And they will travel in packs,like wolves,and have reverted to being animals in search of a meal,a drink of non contaminated water. And whatever else you have that They do not. Store Closures!? Please …. there wont be any. What there will be is lots of Marshal Law and Death.

In famous periods of collapse the Romans made it illegal to abandon your unprofitable farm. The Germans under Hitler could not quit their jobs, (very popular with German management). Wage and price controls have been tried from revolutionary France to President Nixon. Remember that in times of financial crisis, always caused or enabled by bad government, no cost to you is too much for them to bear.

If anything could and should have served as a cautionary tale for folks looking for a way of surviving the approaching storm, the trajectory of silver through the last couple of years would have to be it.

Back in the heady days of 2011, you could hardly avoid the wave of aggressive calls for silver’s inevitable outperformance…. here’s a typical blast from that recent past…

“Money Morning’s Martin Hutchinson believes silver and gold will continue climbing into 2011 and beyond. If enough investor momentum gains – and if China’s push for individual silver investment intensifies – he believes silver could peak past $100 either this year or next.
But, that’s just the beginning. Silver could top out at $250/oz. in the next five years as global mine production crawls in the face of increasing consumer and industrial demand. That’s an increase of over 1,150%. Bear in mind that silver prices have been moving faster than gold. So those who want to invest in silver better pull the trigger soon, or watch silver’s price explode from the sidelines… Read on to discover exactly why silver will make savvy investors rich in the year ahead”

that needs no comment. Except perhaps to ask if Mr. Hutchinson has conveyed his condolences to the legions of not-so-savvy investors who took the advice of he and his ilk- and piled in near the top of a market which has underperformed those expectations by a country mile?

Is all of this to say that silver is something to stay away from now, because of past performance? No, there is a strong case for silver’s role in a defensive strategy against fiat currency collapse. But what is perhaps most troubling about the great divide between expectations and performance which silver has suffered since it’s parabolic climb of 2010-11 is that almost the identical reasons are being trotted out today as then to support the thesis of it’s “inevitable rise.”

While I strongly believe that Steve is absolutely sincere in his wish to bring to the attention of readers the need to prepare for massive changes, the unfortunate effect of the previous pms hustle on the part of that army of analysts and enthusiasts who advised throwing caution and debate to the winds is that perceptions of the metals have been tarnished. Damage control is needed, in order to give potential new investors the sense of being invited by way of rational, informed, and DISINTERESTED suggestion to look at the metals as a means of helping themselves to survive fiat follies.

It’s good to see that readers are starting to ask the right questions… about why silver is in stasis. That’s the first step in getting some correct answers. The consensus explanations, and a whole generation of the analysts and cultists who spread them are now terminally discredited. We are left with no other choice than to take on the task of digging deeper ourselves into the real story behind manipulations and marketless markets… minus the dogma which ultimately only serves the interest of the moneypowers, and crushes the hopes of the gullible. The push to get silver into the weak hands of those who were unprepared for the following long hard slog turned out to be counter-productive to our long term interests…. not to mention theirs!

Checking our assumptions and personal biases at the door, we can best serve the public interest and fellow citizens by showing an openness to ask if the purchase of silver coins is a flight to safety or a flight of fancy? Then, by reasoned arguments that take all the facts into consideration, a case can be built which will give potential new investors the sense of safety necessary for them to plunge into the precious metals.

Wise words but I disagree that the reputation of Gold and Silver bulls or the metals themselves has been tarnished by the price action over the past couple of years. Sure, in the main stream media Gold and Silver continues to be demonized and Silver and Gold bulls are widely viewed as lunatics. But those of us who buy Gold and Silver, not as an investment, but as insurance and long term wealth preservation pretty much KNOW what has happened is not free market action but paper price manipulation despite strong physical demand.
Nobody can foresee the degree by which TPTB will try to suppress prices and for how long, all we know that it can’t last forever and especially not when the Western Physical vaults are being drained of most of their Gold.

Here is quote from the former governor of the Bank of England that pretty much is the smoking gun of what happened to Gold and Silver prices as they were approaching the all-time high:

“We looked into the abyss if the gold price rose further. A further rise would have taken down one or several trading houses, which might have taken down all the rest in their wake.

Therefore at any price, at any cost, the central banks had to quell the gold price, manage it. It was very difficult to get the gold price under control but we have now succeeded. The US Fed was very active in getting the gold price down. So was the U.K.”

Edward ‘Steady Eddie’ George, Governor Bank of England 1993-2003

It really is no mystery that Gold and Silver are the Anti-Dollar and as the dollar is printed into oblivion any surging Gold and Silver prices need to be capped to maintain confidence in the dollar. Once that confidence goes, it’s game over for the dollar and Gold and Silver will spiral out of control.

Most of the pro-bullish Gold and Silver analysts (the KWN guests) are not wrong about their predictions, many just make the mistake of putting a time-line or a specific price target on their predictions. That’s when they start to lose credibility. You can’t make price predictions in a completely rigged market. In the end the fundamentals will win out, they always do, and when that day comes, it’s no longer about the price, it’s only about the ounces.

Thanks for your input. I can disagree with nothing that you are saying, but I think you may have misunderstood why I have questioned the reputation of the gold/silver bulls perspective. It’s more about delivery than who is ultimately “right” in their prognosis. Gold will go much higher. Silver may also, but whether or not new buyers come into the market depends on how safe they feel about doing so. So it’s through their eyes I am talking about this, not those of the seasoned metals warrior!

Of those who bought in at the time silver was pushed as a sure shot, you can bet their are many disillusioned folk who bet their families’ future on something that they poorly understood the risks of, and will never ever be returning to the fold. They don’t talk much about it on sites like this, out of shame, embarrassment, and dismay, but you can bet they are out there reading. I like to mention this, cause it’s important that they, and potential investors still on the sidelines should know that not all the pm community are not sharks and self-absorbed profiteers who play to gain at somebody else’s expense.

For at least some of us, the precious metals are as much a social project as an investment strategy… we know that only if the greater part of the community is convinced to believe in an economy which eschews the debt. interest/usury system, and the kleptocracy that employs it, will our society regain it’s integrity and balance. Sorry, end of sermon. Now I’ll get back to the facts of the case!

There’s no disagreement in the community at this point as whether there is ‘manipulation’ or not. It’s rather a question of just WHO is behind it, and what are the motives. By questioning the assumption of the consensus of those who write the great majority of commentary on the metals, I am suggesting that the reasons they gave for pm’s limitless upward movement, AS WELL AS their proposed timelines for it …. AND the players who they identified as being behind the suppression have all been proven suspect.

Some regard price manipulation as a mere matter of the bullion bankers shearing the traders. Others see behind it the agenda of giving the fiat system a few more years before expiry. I am suggesting that we look at the situation from the eyes of those who are giving their attention to what to do about their rapidly deteriorating financial situation, but have neither the experience with, or faith in the metals that stronger hands do.

Seen from their angle, I will reiterate my opinion that the last couple of years have done nothing to encourage them to take the plunge… and that therefore another way of making the case for precious metals is needed and overdue. I also believe that there is a strong case to be made that the real players behind the scenes have not yet been identified… and until they are, there is peril in making plans without all the geo-political facts on the table… for both the seasoned and unseasoned amongst us.

“Checking our assumptions and personal biases at the door, we can best serve the public interest and fellow citizens by showing an openness to ask if the purchase of silver coins is a flight to safety or a flight of fancy? Then, by reasoned arguments that take all the facts into consideration, a case can be built which will give potential new investors the sense of safety necessary for them to plunge into the precious metals”.

Very well said in my opinion. Sounds like the scientific method I was grounded in while getting my degree in geology.

From your data, it appears that fracking gas might be starting to peak. I’m truly amazed that in the MSM, the plan for Ukraine appears to be to ship US natural gas over there in case Russia turns off their spigots! This sounds like the plans of some kind of lunatic. Do they actually believe this?

According to the spin doctors (Reuters), the Russian pressure on Ukrane may ignite U.S. exports of natural gas. They will just reverse the flow of the gas pipes. Lol.

It sounds credible watching an expert talk on Reuters. Had I not read SRSrocco Reports I wouldn’t even think of questioning the report. I would just think to myself that there’s nothing to worry about here, watch the next news reel and go about my daily business. This is just one example how the media has completely warped reality.

I think Steve is wrong to say “[Americans] hope and pray that the DIGITS in their accounts will be good as gold when they retire.” They truly believe paper or digits are money that has value. How can they hope and pray for something to be true if it’s already the bedrock of their belief system?

Your argument about gas supplies doesn’t hold much water. You’re comparing a 5 year average gas supply to one month with the coldest temperatures on record. Duh, you’re going to have a big drop off in supply. Based on your statistics, when the weather man says it’s going to snow heavily and you go to the store to buy bread and find the shelves empty (except for that single mangled loaf), I’m guessing you would come to the conclusion that bread supplies have dropped off and we’ll run out of bread in the future.

Yes, your logic makes sense at face-value. However, when we look at all the data… I believe the U.S. Natural Gas Industry is in for serious trouble.

While it is true that this was a record cold winter (Not just one month), it maybe what is in store for the future. I will get into more of this in detail in THE U.S. & GLOBAL COLLAPSE REPORT.

Regardless, the record withdrawal is on top of a year (2013) of lousy production growth. Furthermore, the U.S. is using a lot more gas than it was, say just 5 years ago. We are shutting down more coal fired electric plants and opening up NatGas.

This will turn out to be a very bad decision as the U.S. does not have the amount of natural gas reserves that was hyped in the media.

The number of Natural Gas drilling rigs fell off a cliff since 2009. Here is the data:

JAN 2009 Gas = 1,235 rigs (80%)
JAN 2009 Oil = 324 rigs (20%)

JAN 2014 Gas = 365 rigs (20%)
JAN 2014 Oil = 1,408 rigs (80%)

In five years the industry has moved from drilling 80% of its rigs in natural gas to now 80% drilling oil. The number of gas drilling rigs started to really fall off at the end of 2011.

There is no way that the Gas Industry is going to make up a 24% annual decline rate unless they start to move a huge portion of those rigs from oil to gas. Even with the recent spike up in price… there hasn’t been much in the way of additional gas drilling rig count.

I believe the summer will be hotter than average as the drought continues in the west, and I believe we are going to have the same sort of extreme-cold POLAR VORTEX hitting the Northeast again this winter.

You add up all of these factors… I don’t see the U.S. building its underground storage to the levels it has before… unless there is a crash in the market and consumption falls. However, production may fall as well.

Anyhow… I think 2014-2015 will be quite interesting on the ENERGY FRONT.

As far as the dumbing down of America goes: The US Constitution in Article 1; Section 10 guarantees that the US Mint will provide FREE gold and silver coins as OUR money. The Constitution says nothing about the citizens of the US buying gold and silver coins, because there could have NEVER been a paper currency circulating by which citizens could purchase silver or gold eagles from the Mint, if the Constitutional money program mandate was enforced, This dumbing down process has cost US citizens their sovereignty and freedom of expression in national and world wide international commerce. If anyone thinks the US uses honest, Constitutional money in trade today, please let them name it. The ones most organized to prosper from OUR use of fiat, I Owe You Nothing, paper money via inflation are the Banks who expand their money supplies through Fractional Reserve Banking using good faith depositors’ money. What would a $200,000 home cost today, if instead of its’ value being denominated in fiat paper money was instead valued only by the use of silver dollars?